Is it just me or does this guy seem to get more extreme every day?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_ISRAEL?SITE=PAYOK&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
It's important to resist the urge to describe this man, or his comments, as crazy, insane, or anything of that color. Although civilized people flinch in the face of such candor, and desperately search for some other explanation for his words and actions, it's important to not dismiss him as mentally imbalanced. Ahmadinejad truly believes that Israel should be wiped off the map. He's said so enough times.
Let's take him at his word.
I must stress that we're facing a threat bigger than most people are willing or educated enough to acknowledge. First, the goal of Islam is world-wide Sharia; rule under Muslim law. Every practicing Muslim wants this. Second, a certain percentage deems any actions under the sun justifiable to achieving those ends. If all infidels must be killed to achieve the goal, that's OK with them (and you can call this group Jihadists, Islamofascists, whatever tickles your fancy). Third, the rest of the Islamic world disagrees with the tactics of the Jihadists, but is willing to see if holy war can make it happen.
This is truly a clash of civilizations on the grandest of scales, and we dismiss the severity of it at our own peril. This iteration of the struggle between fascism and freedom has the potential to make WWII look like a playground fight.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Great link, thanks Mom.
"Regarding Iran, Lubrani elaborated, "the world has to come to the conclusion that the Iranian threat requires root-canal treatment. I take [President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad seriously. People think he's a clown, a buffoon. He's not."
Leaders of the Iranian hard-line regime, he said, "believe they have a direct line to God, and they'll do whatever 'divine inspiration' requires them to do. Talking to them is pointless. They want to wipe out the US, and us, too, in the bargain, as the representatives of Western culture. This can't be swept under the carpet." "
You're welcome. I thought you and your readers would be interested in this as well. It's quoted from The Washington Times July 21st Editorial column, titled"Hezbollah and Main Street" by Diana West.
" In this wide-open question of loyalties we may see the expanding emptiness of the modern nation-state, where basic identification with the nation itself is no longer at the core of citizenship. And that includes the United States, where, for example, a good stretch of Main Street follows the Israeli war on Hezbollah via Al Jazeera -- at least Main Street in Dearborn, Mich., which writer Debbie Schlussel has described as "the heart of Islamic America, and especially Shia Islam America."
As the New York Times reported from Dearborn, "For miles along West Warren -- in hair salons, restaurants and meat markets -- shopkeepers and their relatively few customers stared at televisions tuned in to Al Jazeera." Incidentally, there were "relatively few" customers out and about only because, as one baker knew, "most of his regular customers were home watching [Al Jazeera], just as they had all day, every day," since Israel's offensive began.
Why does this matter? Al Jazeera, of course, is the relentlessly anti-American, anti-Israeli, jihad-boosting "news" network. To find TVs in the heartland tuned in to this station today is roughly akin to coming across an American town, circa 1942, tuned in to Axis propagandists Tokyo Rose and Lord Haw Haw.
But this isn't, as they say, your father's heartland. Hezbollah itself is popular in Dearborn, which can fill a banquet hall to celebrate "Lebanon Liberation Day" -- the day Hezbollah claims as victory when Israeli forces withdrew in 2000. Osama Siblani, the publisher of Dearborn's Arab American News, considers members of Hezbollah -- along with Hamas and other jihadist groups -- freedom fighters. And, as Mr. Siblani tells it to the Detroit News, he's not alone: "If morally supporting Hizbollah or associating with [Hezbollah spiritual leader Muhammad Hussein] Fadlallah is a crime, 'there is not going to be enough buses to haul the people out and take them to jail.'"
Mom,
That's a frightening thought... why do we allow access to al jazeera in the first place? We've got a long way to go, haven't we?
-AH
Post a Comment